Pollination research in India: Current status, future vision and conservation implications

Abstract

Pollination is a dynamic ecological interaction, that has evolved to promote the survival and reproductive success of flowering plants and their pollinators. Human‐induced environmental changes in recent decades have reduced the density and diversity of pollinators and have resulted in a global pollinator crisis. Western countries have realized this problem since the beginning of this century and extensive research has been going on to study pollinators and pollination in both wild and crop species. To mitigate the crisis, considerable success has been achieved in these countries. In India, investigations on plant‐pollinator interaction, as well as global pollinator‐crisis have received very little attention in spite of its rich biodiversity. So far, the contribution from the Indian region towards pollination biology is merely 5% of the world. This review summarizes limited data available on pollination ecology, analyses possible reasons for this situation, highlights the importance of initiating serious studies on pollinators and pollination and provides a roadmap. It is concluded that a collaborative initiative involving the scientific community, society and policymakers is a prerequisite to achieve the objectives of biodiversity conservation and crop productivity in the country.